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"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is Joyce's semi-autobiographical first novel. It traces the early life of Stephen Dedalus and his inner struggle with the oppression of Irish society and the Catholic church, ending with his awakening as a poet and writer and self-imposed exile from Ireland.

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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

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Publisher's Summary

James Joyce revolutionized twentieth-century writing with his "stream of consciousness" technique. While ingeniously innovative and experimental, he was also a keenly precise chronicler of the people, places, and sounds of his native Dublin. In Dubliners, a cast of 15 internationally famous stage and screen actors perform stories that make up a brilliant journey over a human landscape that captures the bleakest of despair to the most blinding of epiphanies. First published in 1914, the stories are as cogent and accessible as they are memorably touching. Both the spiritually deadening atmosphere that drove Joyce from his homeland and the irresistible emotional pull it kept on him to the end of his days become heartbreakingly beautiful. Each time you listen, the stories will become resonantly deeper.

I have read the Dubliners before and loved them, so I thought it would be fun to listen to them. The stories do not translate that well to an audio format. The stories are difficult to follow when read aloud, and the narration did not help at all. The reading is not done by professional audio book readers, and it makes such a difference. I had such a hard time, especially with some of the narrators as each story has a different narrator. It was especially difficult when there was dialogue because most of the narrators did not even really attempt distinct voices. I would definitely recommend reading these lovely stories; just avoid the audio book version.

Joyce's stories are more like intense slices of life than traditional stories. The writing is, of course, masterful and the audio readings were the highest professional level. However, I found many of the stories themselves somewhat heavy, serious, and depressing.

Joyce's Dubliners are us, they're Everyman and Everywoman, alive in any time even though they are uniquely situated, of course, in early 20th century Dublin. Joyce's amazing characters come to life through the talented cast of actors and voices reading these timeless stories.

What about Frank McCourt and Patrick McCabe ’s performance did you like?

Their own lives and talents feel interspersed into Joyce's world and it was a pleasure to listen to them.

I approached Joyce's 'Dubliners' with some trepidation, having struggled with my father's ancient, hard back edition; ultimately giving up in frustration at not 'getting it'. This audio version, however, is spellbinding. The narrators voices, with their gently Irish lilt bring out the nuance and meaning to every story, hitting just the right pitch for both the humour and the pathos of these simple, yet astonishingly complex tales. The characters sing in your head and it's hard to get rid of them. Poverty, pretension, humour and pathos mixed with wry, social commentatory and unforgetable honesty. At last I 'get' Joyce. Wonderful stuff.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Amanda Shute

6/1/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Good collection of stories"

Very easy to listen to and very nostalgic. It really gives you an insight into yesteryear; of how the different classes were regarded in Ireland.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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